Back in Australia, in desperate need of sleep

I should have really posted this on Saturday, but eh.

Got back to Australia on Saturday morning (the plane got into Sydney airport at 6:05am - it turns out they don't open until 6:00am, so the pilots timed that quite well). The flight back was pretty good, an hour or two shorter, but i still didn't manage to sleep.

The first person i ran into who i knew was a staffer from Kevin Rudd's office, so i got all the latest news and gossip from her. Things are looking good for the good guys!

My parents picked me up from the Canberra airport, which was an absolute godsend as i was buggered at that point. Went back to their place, had lovely soup for lunch and then spent the afternoon trying not to fall asleep too much.

The temperature is probably the biggest thing about being back - i can no longer just walk around in shorts and t-shirt. Well, not if i want to avoid horrible noxious diseases. It's strange, but the dark, cold winter climate of Canberra i've actually found a bit depressing the last few days. It's not something i've ever noticed before, so maybe it's just the contrast.

There are a lot of things that i'm noticing in comparison to Thailand - i can drink the tap water with confidence, the traffic is more predictable, but i miss not having little merchant stores everywhere. I really found that nice.

It's also really, really nice to no longer be the giant westerner who everyone stared at, and who couldn't speak a word of the language. That's very relieving.

I'll have the photos posted up at some point soon, i swear.